Perspectives of young adults diagnosed with early psychosis using coordinated specialty care in Texas on substance use and substance use interventions.

AIM: Despite known prevalence of substance use (SU) among young people experiencing early psychosis and increasing evidence for the relationship between certain substances (e.g., cannabis) and psychosis, there are no specialized interventions developed for effectively addressing substance use among young people participating in coordinated early psychosis services. This study elicited the perspectives of young people with early psychosis participating in Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) programs about their substance use, including their motivations and concerns around their use, and their ideas on how to best support young people who are interested in reducing or quitting substance use. METHODS: We recruited young adults (ages 18 to 30) from CSC programs across Texas through flyers sent to program staff inviting young persons willing to talk about substance use to engage in a 60-90 min person-centered, semi-structured, audio-recorded Zoom interview. RESULTS: A total of 22 young adults were recruited and 18 completed an interview. Participants described mixed positive and negative responses to substance use, and while many understood the importance of discontinuing substance use, many expressed ambivalence related to social, contextual, mental and physical factors that motivated them to keep using. Participants desired practical substance use information, opportunities to explore their substance use ambivalence in supportive relationships, positive peer communities to support healthy choices, help engage, with work, school, and hobbies, and strategies for addressing psychological and physical pain that did not include substance use. CONCLUSION: Study findings illuminate what motivates young people with early psychosis to initiate, continue, or cut back on substance use, and ideas for CSC practices for exploring substances and helping young people to reduce substance use.

DNA methylation markers in the diagnosis and prognosis of common leukemias.

The ability to identify a specific type of leukemia using minimally invasive biopsies holds great promise to improve the diagnosis, treatment selection, and prognosis prediction of patients. Using genome-wide methylation profiling and machine learning methods, we investigated the utility of CpG methylation status to differentiate blood from patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) or acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) from normal blood. We established a CpG methylation panel that can distinguish ALL and AML blood from normal blood as well as ALL blood from AML blood with high sensitivity and specificity. We then developed a methylation-based survival classifier with 23 CpGs for ALL and 20 CpGs for AML that could successfully divide patients into high-risk and low-risk groups, with significant differences in clinical outcome in each leukemia type. Together, these findings demonstrate that methylation profiles can be highly sensitive and specific in the accurate diagnosis of ALL and AML, with implications for the prediction of prognosis and treatment selection.